24^th European Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology

Toxicology issues related to covid -19

The role of toxicology in the COVID–19 pandemic known as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID–19) and previous pandemics have been viewed almost exclusively as virology problems, with toxicology problems mostly being ignored. This perspective is not supported by the evolution of COVID–19, where the impact of real-life exposures to multiple toxic stressors degrading the immune system is followed by the SARS–COV–2 virus exploiting the dysfunctional immune system to trigger a chain of events ultimately leading to COVID–19. This immune system degradation from multiple toxic stressors (chemical, physical, biological, psychosocial stressors) means that attribution of serious consequences from COVID–19 should be made to the virus-toxic stressors nexu